What the facility does
Aquatic toxicology, environmental testing, proteomics, metabolomics, bioanalytical chemistry and bioinformatics.
Areas of expertise
The uniqueness of the research lies into how it has been strategized into these 3 main goals:
- To identify unique protein and metabolite expression patterns in blood plasma specific to individual environmental stressors that are linked to higher level adverse outcomes for use in non-lethal environmental biomonitoring;
- To expand the knowledge of blood plasma function in vertebrate fish by determining the phenotypic plasticity of protein and metabolite abundance in plasma; and
- To develop an online database containing molecular expression patterns (MEPs) specific to environmental stress and indicative of adverse outcomes.
Research services
Aquatic toxicology testing, proteomics, metabolomics, liquid chromatography tandem high-resolution mass spectrometry, and bioinformatics.
Sectors of application
- Education
- Energy
- Environmental technologies and related services
- Fisheries and aquaculture
- Life sciences, pharmaceuticals and medical equipment
- Mining, minerals and metals
- Tourism and hospitality
- Utilities
Specialized labs and equipment
| Specialized lab | Equipment | Function |
|---|---|---|
| Aquatic toxicology lab | 2,000 square foot flow-through aquatic animal testing facility (custom) | This facility is used to conduct toxicity testing with aquatic organisms. We also breed and culture two species of fish – the Japanese medaka and the Florida flagfish. We can do embryo studies, life-cycle studies, multi-generational studies, and behavioral studies in this facility. |
| Biomolecular characterization lab | Agilent 1260 Infinity Liquid Chromatograph | Instrument that can characterize thousands of biomolecules at once using high-throughput sample analyses and bioinformatics data processing workflow. |
| Biomolecular characterization lab | Agilent 6545 LC/Q-TOF MS (Quadrupole Time-of-Flight Mass Spectrometer) | Instrument that can characterize thousands of biomolecules at once using high-throughput sample analyses and bioinformatics data processing workflow. |
| Biomolecular characterization lab | Acer Octa-core 3.5 GHz Core i9 computers with 64 GB of DDR4 SDRAM computers with dual display (3) | Computers that can characterize thousands of biomolecules at once using high-throughput sample analyses and bioinformatics data processing workflow. |
Additional information
| Title | URL |
|---|---|
| Testing sewage for COVID-19 could be 'early warning' system, Ontario researchers hope | https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/toronto/covid-19-wastewater-testing-ontario-1.5715972 |